This is one of those rare instances where all of the ingredients for this recipe happened to be all there in my refrigerator already. I had leftover pumpkin from making a cake with it, I had bread from a failed milk bread sandwich attempt, and I had both heavy cream and koji as my usual pantry staples. The idea for the koji mascarpone came about while I was in Austin and got to meet the owners of David Doughie’s thanks to my friend Amanda! They were talking about making homemade cream cheese, and that random conversation topic got me thinking about doing a really savory homemade cheese. I love making mascarpone from scratch, and I actually prefer it to normal cream cheese anyways, because of how light it is. But then I got the idea of introducing koji, which is a kind of rice-based bacteria, to the mascarpone as I am making it. Koji is normally used to turn soy beans into soy sauce/miso, and it adds this umami that is absolutely delicious. With making homemade mascarpone, that is done by first stirring heavy cream with lemon juice at 200 degrees F for 5 minutes, then chilling the cream down so that it sets. For this case, we are going to still be going that, but instead of chilling it down right away, we will chill it down to lukewarm first, add in shio koji, which is a kind of liquid koji, to that, then cool it down all the way. The koji will react with the warm cream, culturing it and giving it this umami tang that will make this the ideal kind of soft cheese to use for a savory application. And I already have in mind one savory recipe that I could do with a savory cheese – pumpkin toast.

Pumpkin toast is my absolute favorite pumpkin recipe. The idea of these toasted pieces of bread with creamy, sweet and salty pumpkin, absolutely delightful. I have made a version of it on this blog before, but what I love about this rendition is that it is relatively simple in terms of the number of components. My old version used miso-goat cheese, but this one uses the koji mascarpone for a similar effect. Koji adds a layer of umami, and mascarpone is naturally tangy, so it will really brighten up your palate. I am including a recipe for the milk bread I used to make these toasts, but you can totally just use shokupan or even a toasted baguette instead! Instead of doing a miso jam, I am simply roasting the pieces of pumpkin with a marinade made with miso, sake, mirin, and honey, just to get the exterior of each piece nice and toasty. What I love about this recipe is that it can be as simple as taking premade bread, toasting it, and garnishing it with the koji mascarpone, roasted pumpkin, and pepitas, and there really is nothing wrong with that either. The garnishes in this case are what takes something as everyday as a slice of toasted Wonderbread, and turns it into something special. The smoky sweet-salty pumpkin and the cream, savory koji mascarpone are a great combination for almost any blank canvas – with the right preparations on each, these components can be made into a sandwich, a dumpling, a bun, or even a pasta dish! They are both really versatile components, but they come together really well here to make your bread-eating experience a very memorable one.

For the koji mascarpone:
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp shio koji
a pinch of salt

In a pot, heat up the heavy cream and rice vinegar on low heat until it reaches 200 degrees F. Adjusting the heat so that the cream does not go over that temperature, stir the cream continuously for 5 minutes, keeping it at 200 degrees F the whole time. Take the cream off heat and continue stirring until it registers at 140 degrees F, then add in the shio koji. Pour the cream into a shallow container, cover it, and refrigerate it overnight.

For the milk bread:
1 packet(2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar or honey
1/2 cups milk, in 3 parts
4 cups flour, in 4 parts
1 stick unsalted butter, cold
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk

Heat up 1 part of your milk until just lukewarm, then stir into that the yeast and sugar and let that sit in a warm place. In a pot, stir together 1 part of the flour with 2 parts of the milk on medium heat until it forms the texture of a thick paste. Take off heat, and stir in the cold butter and salt until that is fully melted into your (tangzhong) mixture, and the mixture is now just lukewarm in temperature. In a stand mixer, combine and knead together all of your ingredients for 10 minutes, or until the dough begins to cling to the dough hook attachment. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour. Then roll out the dough, coil it up like a scroll, and transfer it to a shokupan tin. Let the bread dough proof at room temperature in the tin, covered, for 2 hours, then bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes. Allow the bread to fully cool before cutting into 1/2-inch slices and toasting on each side.

For the miso-roasted pumpkin:
1/2 kabocha squash, skin removed
canola oil
a pinch of cumin
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of salt
a pinch of nutmeg
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp shio koji
1 tbsp miso paste

Slice the squash into 1/4-inch thick pieces. Toss with the other ingredients and roast in the oven at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until fork-tender.

For garnish:
Pepitas

Spread 1 tbsp of the mascarpone onto one side of the toast. Layer on top of that the roasted pumpkin and the pepitas to finish.